Your guide to all things prospect, courtesy of Jonathan Mayo

And just one more thing: Reds

Lisa Winston’s Reds preview is up now on MiLB.com. They’ve got some serious talent, particularly with the "Fab Four" Lisa wrote about. Here’s her first entry for our "And just one more thing" feature:

With what now seems to be a perennial though ever-changing glut of middle
infielders, two
favorites of mine did not make the cut so I want to give them
some love here: Chris Valaika and Justin Turner. Both enjoyed solid first full
seasons coming off killer debuts, but the future for both remains a bit murky as
they probably project more as utility infielders. Valaika, who has played at
shortstop both of his pro seasons, saw time at second base during Hawaii Winter
League this year and that could be his eventual position. A third-round pick out
of UC-Santa Barbara in 2006, he was Pioneer League MVP that year, hitting .324
with eight homers and 60 RBIs. He hit well at Dayton to start this season,
batting .307 with 10 homers and 56 RBIs in 79 games but saw his numbers dip with
his mid-season promotion to Sarasota, hitting .253-2-23 in 57 games there. (It?s
interesting that all of last year?s shortstop triumvirate fell off the list this
year, with Paul Janish struggling woefully at the plate at Chattanooga and Louisville and Milton Loo hitting the voluntarily retired list as he returned home to
Hawaii Turner, a seventh-round pick in ?06 out of Cal State Fullerton, is another guy
we love, a real scrappy gym rat who loves to play. After hitting .338 with six
homers, 41 RBIs and 12 steals at Billings in his debut, he batted .311 with 10 homers and 59 RBIs at Dayton in his debut. A
second baseman, he also probably projects as a utility guy. Both of these
players would have made the list in many organizations and it?s really just the
Reds? newfound depth that saw them just miss making the cut.

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